The in Between week 4

This has been the week that I didn't want.  In between Andrew having a cold, him sharing that cold with me, and Stella coming up lame, we have all been a sad sort.  The good news is that my birthday was Monday so let's start out on a good note shall we?

Monday:  Rest day.  My birthday!  One more year closer to 40!!!!!

We took Andrew to Umi Japanese Steakhouse as he has never experienced the fun of a hibachi grill.  The fire scared him pretty bad, but he loved the food, and ate like a little piglet!  He even drank the soup, something i never thought he would do!  After dinner, we had birthday cake.  I really need to reign in my eating, and I will, but after the holidays.  We only have holidays once a year, and I intend on having fun with them and eating what I want and NOT feeling guilty.  If it means gaining a few pounds, so be it.






Tuesday:  5-6 miles planned.  I had a rough night, with little sleep.  The cold i had been fighting hit me with a full vengeance.  I spent quite a bit of time on the couch with my diffuser on full blast right in my face full of breathe from Doterra.  We really need a recliner for sleeping in.  The drugs would work, but only for the set amount of time on the box, and I would wake up fully congested at the exact time they would be due to stop working.  Then of course, my mind would be thinking about a thousand things like stella's illness or all the work I needed to get done this week, and I wouldn't be able to go to back to sleep, even when the drugs would kick in.  I just couldn't see the point of getting up at 4 am and running when I had so little sleep and felt so bad.  I am in the the in between anyway, so getting better was my mindset, whereas I use to run no matter what.  See, I am maturing as a runner :)

Wednesday:  Cross training.  Still felt horrible, plus andrew was really struggling as well.  He was coughing pretty badly, but I was just dealing with severe congestion.  I was in bed by 8:30, and asleep by 9.  I felt bad for leaving the boys up, as that is when Tony works on his small business stuff, but I had a really bad headache that had the potential to go migraine.

Thursday:  Thanks to the holiday allowing me to be off, I was able to get plenty of sleep (even though I woke up once to get andrew more cough medicine) via sleeping in, and still get on the road for a run before we headed over to our friend's house to celebrate.  Running when I am congested is actually nice, because it loosens things and I become a human snot rocket.  As long as it doesn't get down into my chest, I can still run.

We watched the parade first on CBS and then on NBC.  We got to see Thomas TWICE!!!!  He was the second balloon in the parade, which was nice.  Little red was super into the parade this year, which makes me SO happy!

We headed over to Melly's house post Thomas appearance to eat, drink and be merry!  We had fried turkey and all the fixings, plus PIE!  I may never eat again!

On a side note, this was really the first day I really felt like a normal human being.  I hoping this trend continues.

On another side note, Stella is lame on a back leg again.  I am getting really, really worried that we are headed towards another relapse.  Please keep stella in your prayers.  She has had some pain meds and really, it doesn't seem to be helping.

Friday:  Cross training.  Got outside on my beloved bike.  Thank you day off!  I didn't get much sleep the night before, and was up at 7 am on the dot, so was pretty tired all day.  After some work at the lab, one place shopped for black friday deal (yes one deal, and they didn't have it), and some wendy's, I headed out of 12 miles of biking to clear my head.  I still am trying to figure out how to dress for biking when it is colder, and I think i got it done today.  I looked pretty stupid, but I don't care.  I wore a long sleeve shirt, my running jacket, gloves, and my biking shorts over long pants.  I was nice and toasty, even with the wind trying to hold me back, and managed to get 13 miles in.

We decided to jump on the Elf on the Shelf bandwagon.  His name is peanut (maybe because a jug of peanut oil is sitting next to him?), and he showed up last night during the night.  I almost totally forgot we were suppose to put him out the night before, so he would be found the day after thanksgiving.  Andrew seems to be digging him so far, but I did catch him sitting as close as he could to him and just staring at him.  Not sure at this point, if he was in awe or creeped out.

Saturday:  Switched my long run day and my shorter long run day.  My hubby wanted to go work out in the am, so we switched work out times and I got to go later in the day.  We ate left overs for lunch, and even though I thought i had left a big enough window of time for digestion, apparently I was wrong.  Sigh.  I wanted to do 5 miles, and got in 4 painful walk/run miles, with not one, but two side stitches.  They weren't even in my side, they were both under my rib cage and super painful!!!  I tried every trick in the book to make them go away to no avail.

This is Deuce's "COME ON LADY" face!  He was pretty tired of me walking by the end of the 4 miles.  A little stella update here.  I wrote a pretty long blog the other night about where we are at, but if you haven't read it, she is back to being lame on 2 legs now, a front and a back.  I slowly have watched her over the course of this week get worse and worse.  Saturday was the worst, as she could barely move, and the codeine was doing NOTHING but making her a loopy mess.  Finally, I had to break out the gabapentin, and pray it wouldn't interact badly with any drugs she is on.  I know it has worked in the past with controlling her pain, so I had to give it a go.  We left for a little while to go to Manhattan to the Festival of Lights, and I just prayed that when we got home, she would be better and she was.  She was still holding the back leg up, but was alert and bright and active (which can be good and bad).  

cake pop and hot chocolate on a saturday night

Sunday:  8-10 planned.  Ended up doing 9.7 miles again.  Just didn't feel like completing that final .29.  We had wind at 10 mph from the west and south that just kicked my butt.  I overdressed since I thought the wind would cool things down and it didn't, so I sweated like crazy.  

I did have fuel this time and did have to make a pitstop from not eating really well the night before but oh well, we got it done.  A bad run is still a good run (unless it is like yesterday and then that was just down right painful!).  I am actually sore from yesterday's run where those two muscles spasmed.  

Not the week I wanted, but the week I got, and I am happy I got some running in AND that this stupid cold is wrapping up.  Have a great next week!  I am hoping to back to some sort of schedule next week.  Andrew's wrestling practices start for real and he is getting his hair cut, so look forward to lots of pictures of the two legged red!  Also keep those prayers rolling in for stella ella!